After studying Sunday Night, body language expert Susan Constantine shares her observations with New Idea.
‘Rachelle’s body language appears to suggest some lack of compassion for Lisa,’ she says. ‘I think she and Gittany are very much like each other. There was nothing in her body language that confirmed to me that she believed him. She loves the attention and limelight. You can see her face light up when she’s asked about him, but he’s even more appealing to her now he’s a public figure.’
He’s the convicted murderer who callously threw his beautiful fiancee off their 15th-floor apartment in a fit of rage when she tried to leave him. But Simon Gittany’s current love Rachelle Louise longs to marry the unrepentant killer and dreams of the day they can start a family together.
‘Simon would be the best father ever, he really would,’ Rachelle, 24, gushed in an explosive interview with Channel Seven’s Sunday Night.
‘He is such a good person, our relationship is so good, he’s so caring, he’s so compassionate.’
Though Rachelle knew Gittany, 40, before his ill-fated romance with Canadian Lisa Harnum, she says the sparks of passion didn’t start to fly until 15 months after the former ballerina died.
Despite coming under intense scrutiny by those who question her relationship with the convicted killer, Rachelle refutes claims she is a gold-digger and vehemently denies her devotion to Gittany is part of a perverted quest for fame.
‘Definitely not,’ she said. ‘I’m not an opportunist because I would never date someone that threw their girlfriend off a balcony. There is no doubt in my mind that Simon is innocent.’
With her razor-sharp cheekbones, sleek hair and cool confidence, Rachelle certainly cut a formidable figure throughout Gittany’s trial.
But cracks in her devotion started to show after discovering her ‘caring’ and ‘compassionate’ boyfriend was jailed for up to 26 years with a non-parole period of 18 years.
‘When he got convicted he turned to me and said: “I want you to go and get married and have kids,” you know, and I do want to start a family of my own someday, I mean, I’m not going to wait that long.
‘Right now I said he’s got five years,’ she added.
During his trial at the NSW Supreme Court, Gittany claimed Lisa, 30, willingly climbed over the balcony of their home after an explosive row, during which a camera caught her trying to flee the apartment before he dragged her back inside.
Along with her father Patrick, Rachelle worked tirelessly on Gittany’s case in a desperate bid to prove his innocence.
Yet, despite Lisa’s death horrifying Australia, they refused to keep a low profile in the lead-up to the trial.
In one video clip supplied to Sunday Night, Rachelle, her father and Gittany are seen dancing at a Billy Joel concert as if they didn’t have a care in the world. In an unsettling twist, the song playing is Only the Good Die Young.
Meanwhile, facing a lifetime of hurt, Lisa’s devastated family say she’ll never be forgotten.
Jason Harnum told Sunday Night about the moment he had to identify his loving sister’s body.
‘My sister’s spirit will live on forever. It was painful but part of me realised that this is only the shell of my sister, her life is around us,’ he said.
Lisa’s mum Joan Harnum says of Gittany: ‘He was responsible for her death. All he had to do that day when she wanted to leave is let her go. It’s as simple as that.
‘Why did you not just let her go? She wanted to go home to her family.’